Grand Falls-Windsor athletes members of Team Canada
National karate squad features large central Newfoundland contingent
A group of athletes from Grand Falls-Windsor are in Poland this weekend competing in the World Traditional Karate Championships.
Sonya Piercey is one two women from this country competing in the adult category at the competition in Krakow.
Youth competitors from this province are Michael Pinsent, Daniel Snow and Cameron Coish. Aiden Sheridan and Emma Snow are members of the children's category.
The two 12-year-old members of the Grand Falls-Windsor contingent are the only child representatives on the Team Canada. It is the second time that the World Children's Peace Cup is part of the competition. Three hundred children took part in that part of the event last year in it's inaugural edition. More are expected for this weekend's event.
Former world champion Michelle Critch of Badger is one of the coaches of the team.
"The experience they are going to bring home from this event is going to be a life-changing experience," Critch said.
Championship full of firsts
Critch said while every year the world championships are exciting, there are several firsts happening at the Krakow event.
It will be the biggest championships since 1994, with an estimated 3,000 athletes taking part in multiple styles of the sport. The venue is a huge, newly-built stadium in the southern-Polish city.
Critch said there are some very talented and disciplined young people on the trip.
"We look at some of them and go ... they are going to go places," Critch said. "All of the young athletes we have with us, I can see that drive and that passion and that desire to better themselves, which is what it is all about."
Critch said in her opinion, the actual competition and winning and losing are secondary at an event like this one.
"As an athlete who has competed in many Worlds and Pan-Americans and Nationals, I can't tell you what I won at some of the events — other than Worlds, of course — but mostly what you remember is the friends that you made and the experiences that you've had."